


hear me calling

by firstlovelatespring



Category: Powerless (TV 2017)
Genre: 5 Times, F/F, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 17:19:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17125523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstlovelatespring/pseuds/firstlovelatespring
Summary: Five times Emily used the green button, and one time she didn’t.





	hear me calling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenofspade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/gifts).



> I hope you like this, sevenofspade! I saw the prompt in your letter, and I just had to write it.
> 
> Beta read by htbthomas, and title from Girl by Bad Bad Hats.

_i._

Emily feels awful about having to call Green Fury. She gave her this alert button for an emergency, not for... for _exploitation_. But she did say to call if Emily ever needed anything, and she sure does need to get out of this situation. And this board room full of men. So she presses the button and glances nervously at the door as time slows down.

The window opens, and, well, there she is. Emily can’t help but smile. Last time she saw Green Fury, they literally ended up on the floor, and she’s nearly as bowled over now.

“Did you butt dial me,” Green Fury says, igniting a fireball in her palm, “or do I need to ruin somebody’s day?”

*

“You’re a single, heterosexual female between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-five, right? Or is this Green Fury thing more than just a little experimentation?” Teddy says, squinting at her suspiciously.

Emily’s breath catches in her throat. She’s never… There have been a few girls, over the years, that she’s felt something more than strictly friendship for, but it was always just easier to date men. And no one’s ever picked up on it before. She’s not even sure if Teddy is really picking up on it now, or just being his usual abrasive self. If asked, she wouldn’t call herself _heterosexual_ , but no one asks. “We’re just friends,” she answers, brushing him off. And maybe there’s something between her and Green Fury, but Emily doesn’t have any plans to change her answer.

Teddy leaves with his stupid survey, and Emily thinks back on her conversation with Green Fury from the other day. “ _I gave you that button for emergencies,_ ” Green Fury had said, but once they were out of the board room, she hadn’t seemed so annoyed. More interested, maybe, that Emily had actually called her. Emily saved a copy of a newspaper that printed a photo of her saving Green Fury’s life—to show her parents that she made it into a Charm City newspaper, she rationalizes. Emily wonders if Green Fury saves any newspaper clippings anymore, or if headlines like this are so commonplace they don’t even show up on her radar.

That day, when she showed Green Fury the article with her eating a doughnut, Emily wanted to say something about the photo of them. She had wanted to apologize, actually, because that seemed like the right thing to do. She was sorry to tarnish Green Fury’s reputation with rumors about a civilian, a civilian _woman_. But Green Fury didn’t seem to care.

* * *

  _ii._

Today has not been a good day. Van accidentally used the new ejector seat button in his office on a big client, Jackie is home with her sick kid, and Wendy brought tuna fish for lunch. So if Emily wants to ride up and down in the elevator for an hour, she thinks she deserves it.

She’s not really naive enough to think she’s going to make any amazing connections with people in here, but there’s something grounding about exchanging pleasantries with strangers. She’s in a new city, at a new job, surrounded by new people, but people here will still smile back at her when she asks how their day was.

The vice president of management gets off on the sixteenth floor. “I hope Allie’s science project goes well!” Emily calls after him. He thanks her, and Emily is actually really starting to feel better. She hits the button for her floor and leans against the handrail as the doors close.

The elevator makes it one floor down before it stops. The display keeps going, _14, 13, 12,_ but the elevator still isn’t moving. Until it drops. Emily’s stomach jumps to her throat, and she grips the handrail until her knuckles turn white. She braces herself, bends her knees to try to jump at the last second—did she read that somewhere? Or did she read that jumping makes things worse—and then, just as suddenly as it fell, the elevator stops.

The display says _B_ , but Emily guesses they can’t be below the eighth floor. She shakes out her limbs; nothing’s broken, but her legs feel like they did for those two weeks she decided to train for a half marathon. Like she has shin splints, and knee splints, and thigh splints.

The elevator still isn’t moving. Emily frowns, and tries the door open button. Nothing happens. She presses the button for the lobby. It lights up, but nothing happens.

“Hello?” she says, and then shouts it louder. “Hello! I’m trapped in here!”

She can’t even get a grip between the doors, but Emily tries to pry them apart anyway. “Help! Somebody help me! I’m—” She stops.

Her purse is there on the floor, where she dropped it. Emily picks it up, pushes aside tissues, tampons, gum, her cell phone, until her fingers close around it, at the bottom of her bag. Green Fury told her to call if there was an emergency, and this sure seems like one. Emily pushes the green button, and wonders if this happening to her is some sort of cosmic punishment for calling Green Fury so frivolously before.

Emily sits on the floor and waits. What if the button was only single-use? What if Green Fury is busy? Or taking a nap, or on vacation? She should have let Teddy and Ron take it apart to see how it works. Although she’s not sure if she could trust them to put it back together again, and not use it to call Green Fury themselves.

It’s different when Emily does it.

There’s a bang, and a dent appears in the elevator door. It sounds like someone’s swearing outside and then a green fireball blows a hole through the doors.

Emily gets to her feet, and out of the way of the door in time to avoid another fireball. “Hey!” she cries, surprising herself, and her hand flies to her mouth.

Green Fury steps in through the wreckage. “Hey?” she says, holding out her hand. “That’s what you have to say to the woman saving your life?”

Emily takes it, and lets Green Fury pull her out to safety. “I mean, _my hero_ ,” Emily says, gazing dramatically up into Green Fury’s eyes.

“That’s more like it.” Green Fury smirks. She squeezes Emily’s hand, and then lets go. 

* * *

  _iii._

“Sorry, I can’t get into anything serious right now,” Teddy is smugly telling a girl from Accounting. “I’m waiting for a call from...” he stage-whispers, “Green Fury. She’s so totally into me.”

“Oh my gosh, really?” the girl gushes, standing next to Ron’s desk. “I’m such a huge fan of her.”

Teddy nods in a way Emily’s sure he thinks is suave. She and Ron giggle and exchange a look, because it really isn’t.

She usually stays out of whatever Teddy’s up to in his ridiculous private romantic life, but this is over the line. He can’t just talk about Green Fury like that! As if she would be into him, a civilian she’s barely had a conversation with. As if she wouldn’t call!

Ron waits until the girl is gone before he says, “I thought we were past this, Teddy.”

“You can’t just lie to girls like that,” Emily says before Teddy can answer, perching next to him on Ron’s desk.

Teddy actually looks offended. “I’m not lying.”

“About Green Fury? Yes, you are. Does she even have your number?” Actually, she doesn’t have Emily’s, either.

“Irrelevant,” he says. “I saw her saving people from Darkseid at the mall this weekend, and there was some intense eye contact. She’s totally into me. We had, like, this spark. Like on the day I saved her life. She was so grateful.”

“ _I_ saved her life!”

“Really? I think that was me.”

“Oh, God,” Emily says. “The photos were all over the news!”

“Yeah, photos of me.”

Ron puts a hand on her shoulder. “It’s useless when he’s like this,” he says. “Green Fury would have to walk into this office and tell him herself she’s not interested, and I’m not sure even that would do it.”

Emily just shakes her head.

The next Monday, Emily goes to the break room to heat up her lunch. She made lasagna this weekend, and she’s really looking forward to the leftovers. She walks in, Tupperware in hand, and right in front of the microwave is Teddy, talking to another girl. Not from this floor, or else Emily would know her name, but familiar enough looking that she must work in the building. She’s drinking candy-colored soda out of a plastic cup.

“And then I pushed her out of the way of the fireball,” he says to her, making all sorts of exaggerated hand gestures. “I saved Green Fury’s life.”

“You’re a hero!” the girl says, laughing and leaning closer to him.

Teddy takes an exaggerated step back. “Woah, woah, don’t get too close. Wouldn’t want Green to get jealous.”

Emily just can’t help herself. “Why would Green Fury be jealous?” she asks innocently.

Teddy rolls his eyes. “You know we had a connection, Emily.”

Emily scoffs. She’s not _jealous_ , or anything like that. It’s just that Teddy’s lying to women that’s driving her insane, that’s all. She just has to make sure people know the truth. Emily puts down her lasagne and reaches into her skirt pocket to press the green button.

Green Fury appears in five seconds flat, looking agile and windswept and apprehensive and maybe a little attractive. And not at all upset at being called. She’s smiling a little, actually, as she says, “What’s up?” to Emily.

“Hi,” Emily says, still not quite used to being able to summon Green Fury and have her appear in seconds.

“He giving you any trouble?”

“No, he just—” Emily turns to Teddy. “Care to repeat what you were saying?”

Teddy gulps. “Uh, just that we should all be feminists? And that I’m so grateful for all you do for Charm City, Ms. Fury.”

“Mm-hmm,” Green Fury says. She glares at him, and it’s a good thing she can only shoot fireballs out of her hands.

“Some hero.” The girl throws her drink in Teddy’s face and stalks off down the hallway. Teddy grabs a handful of paper towels and follows, dripping soda and trying to convince her to come back.

Emily puts her lasagna in the microwave, even though Green Fury is still there, because it feels like the right thing to do. “I’m sorry about that,” she says. “I shouldn’t have called you for something so trivial, Green Fury, but I just—”

“Please,” Green Fury says, waving her hand. “Beatriz.”

Emily gapes, because she’s on a first-name basis with a superhero, and then smiles, because she’s in the break room at work with a girl who makes her stomach do backflips. “Thank you, Beatriz,” she says.

Green Fury— _Beatriz—_ smiles back at her. Emily could get used to this.

The microwave dings, and Emily opens her mouth to offer Beatriz some lasagna, but Beatriz’s phone buzzes.

“Dammit,” she says. “Brainiac is hijacking the city spelling bee. I gotta go.”

Just as quickly as she arrived, Green Fury is gone. For the first time since saving her life, Emily is sure they’ll meet again. 

* * *

  _iv._

Jackie’s phone chirps.

“What’s that?” Emily asks.

“My phone,” Jackie answers unhelpfully, turning off the ringer and placing it face down on her desk.

“I know that’s your calendar tone,” Emily says. “Oh my gosh, do you have a date tonight?”

“No.”

“But you’re wearing your special occasion lipstick,” Emily points out.

Jackie touches her lips. “I hate that you know that.”

“I have to learn about your personal life somehow, since you won’t tell me anything.”

“Fine,” Jackie says, and Emily lights up. “Tonight is Ruby’s dance recital.”

“I didn’t know Ruby danced!” Emily says. “Can I come see it?”

“She does.” Jackie takes an envelope out of her desk drawer. “And yes, but only because I told her I would sell these tickets.” She holds out the tickets, but doesn’t let go yet. “And only if you promise to be very... Un-Emily about it. No getting more excited than I am, no pictures, no crying tears of cuteness, or whatever it is you were thinking of doing.”

Emily nods solemnly. “I promise.”

Jackie relinquishes the envelope, and Emily looks inside. “Two tickets?” she asks.

“Bring someone nice,” Jackie says, surprising her. Emily thinks, at first, that she doesn’t know anyone in Charm City. But then she remembers. She knows who she wants to call.

*

At six fifteen, Emily picks out a nice dress from her closet, and then presses the green button. The dress has a lot of straps, and when Green Fury appears at her window, she still hasn’t exactly figured out what’s supposed to go where.

Emily unlatches the window, and Beatriz tumbles in.

“Are you okay?” she asks, concerned, searching the room for potential threats. “Are you stuck in that dress?”

Emily laughs. “No, no, I’ll figure it out!” She was so nervous to press the button, but now that Green Fury is here in her bedroom, it feels so far removed from her normal life that Emily doesn’t feel nervous at all. “Are you doing anything tonight?”

Beatriz visibly relaxes from her tense stance. She considers, and then smiles. “My six-thirty rescue was a false alarm, so no. I’m free.”

Emily beams. “The show starts at seven-thirty,” she says, handing Beatriz the tickets.

Beatriz raises her eyebrows as she reads the tickets, and Emily has a moment of doubt. What was she thinking, inviting Green Fury to her coworker’s kid’s dance recital? Superheroes definitely have better things to do with their time.

“Sounds great,” Beatriz says.

Emily’s so excited, she steps forward and hugs Beatriz before she can stop herself. Beatriz tenses in her arms for a moment, and then hugs back. She smells like fire. Emily laughs, because why would she smell like anything else?

Beatriz vanishes to her apartment for a few minutes to get some things, and when she reappears at the window, she’s in civilian clothes: a tight black dress. Emily stares. Beatriz climbs into the room and gets to her feet, and Emily’s still staring.

“Wow,” she says.

“Thanks,” Beatriz says, dusting off imaginary lint from her shoulder.

Emily smiles, regaining her composure. “Actually, can you help me with this?” she says, gesturing to the mess of straps on her own dress. “I can’t reach the zipper, I think I need to undo it to move the straps.”

Beatriz undoes the zipper a few inches, and helps Emily move the straps. Her fingers are hot on Emily’s skin, her breath hot on her neck. Emily swallows audibly. She ducks under the neck of the dress, and then Beatriz zips it back up.

Emily turns around to thank her, and Beatriz doesn’t step back. Her mouth falls open. Beatriz holds her gaze.

Emily clears her throat. “We should probably go,” she says, ducking her head to the side and smiling shyly. “We don’t want to be late.”

*

Emily and Beatriz meet Jackie in the parking lot outside the school. Jackie takes one look at Beatriz’s vivid green hair. “When I said to bring someone nice...”

* * *

  _v._

Emily’s walking down the street, thinking about what kind of salad she’s going to order for lunch, when she’s ambushed.

“Excuse me, ma’am!” a reporter asks her. She’s wearing a press lanyard and holding a voice recorder out to Emily. “Do you have a moment to talk to NewsTime?”

“Of course!” Emily says. She wonders what the woman wants with her. Maybe something about being new to Charm City, or maybe about Wayne Security’s new lava-proof shoes. That could be a tricky one. She should have asked Van what kind of confidentiality employees are asked to keep. Not that he’d know the answer…

“Can you confirm or deny that Green Fury is a man-hating lesbian?”

“... What?”

“Are you Green Fury’s mystery lesbian lover? Can you confirm or deny that Green Fury is a man-hating lesbian?”

Emily stands there on the sidewalk for a moment, agape. “No comment,” she finally says, and goes back to her office, salad be damned.

Jackie is at her desk when she gets back. Emily lets out an exaggeratedly distraught sigh, and Jackie exaggeratedly doesn’t ask her what’s wrong. Emily sits down on the edge of her desk anyway, because she knows Jackie wants to know. It’s nice that they have this understanding.

“I just talked to a reporter,” she says. “I was just going out to get lunch—you know that café down the street that does the great salads?”

Jackie moves her head almost imperceptibly, which Emily counts as a nod.

“And a reporter came up to me! She was from NewsTime, and she asked me about—”

Jackie doesn’t even look up from her email. “Green Fury?”

“What? How did you know that?” Why does everyone seem to know more about this than she does?

“What else would the press want to ask you about? Dating a superhero is more interesting than literally anything else you’ve ever done.”

“Dating? What are you talking about?”

“You brought her to Ruby’s dance recital,” Jackie says, shrugging. “I just assumed.”

Emily thinks about Beatriz fixing her dress, in her bedroom. About holding her hand in the parking lot. Leaning on her shoulder after the intermission. “Was that a date?”

Jackie looks at her like she looks at Wendy when she tries to argue that a hot dog is a sandwich. “How should I know?”

Emily frowns, but Jackie is right. Even if Emily’s sure what she feels (and she suddenly and surprisingly really, really is), Beatriz has to answer the question, too.

Emily takes the green button out of her purse. It’s okay, she rationalizes, if Beatriz doesn’t feel the same way. Even the few weeks they’ve had together, doing whatever they’ve been doing, have been enough. No matter what happens when Green Fury appears, Emily doesn’t think she’s going to go back to her tentatively heterosexual life. She’s not going to flatten out her life anymore, closed off to experiences she could be having. Charm City was about making a fresh start, and now, months after moving here, it’s happening.

Green Fury appears. “Hey, what’s up?” she says.

“Hi!” Emily says. Now that Beatriz is here, she’s not sure she can do it. Ask what they are. Emily’s halfway concocted a story about how the crash test dummies Wendy dressed up in overalls are out to get her when Jackie catches her eye. Emily takes a deep breath and turns back to Beatriz.

“Um,” she says.

“Were you gonna ask me out again tonight? I would, but The Joker is coming back, and I promised Batman I’d be there. Maybe Saturday?” Beatriz says, casual as anything, leaning against Jackie’s desk.

“I, um. Saturday is fine,” Emily manages. She smiles at Beatriz, and then at Jackie. She feels decently sure, but she still has to ask, “So the other night was a date?”

Beatriz laughs. “The other night was a date.”

“So then,” Emily says, emboldened, taking a step forward, “I can do this?” She closes the space between them and kisses Green Fury, right in the middle of her office, in front of Jackie and God and everyone.

“You can do that.” Beatriz takes a half-step back, holding Emily’s hand. “More, on Saturday,” she adds, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Emily laughs, but she can tell Green Fury is about to make her dramatic exit of Wayne Industries through some window. “Wait!”

Beatriz stops. “What is it?”

“How can I call you? Should I just…” Emily mimes pressing the green button.

Beatriz laughs, and tosses Emily her phone. “Here.”

“If you’re ever in trouble…” Emily says, keying in her number.

* * *

_\+ i._

Ten minutes after Beatriz leaves, Emily’s phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number.

_Pick you up at eight?_


End file.
